Focus on: Velazquez

Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), is regarded by many as the greatest painter in the history of Western art. We will look at the development of his art from the hard-edged realism of his earliest days in Seville to the almost breathable air of his later portraits and allegories. We will focus especially on later works, such as Las hilanderas (the spinners, around 1657) and Las Meninas, and consider some of the most compelling ways in which they have been interpreted. We will explore Velázquez’s artistic and political role as court painter at the centre of Philip IV’s Empire, and his imaginative hold over later painters including Francisco Goya, Édouard Manet, Pablo Picasso, and Francis Bacon.